Customer Success Story: Tether Tug

Man’s Best Friend has a great new toy that will keep him healthy and entertained for hours. Tether Tug is an interactive dog toy that has gone from an idea to a successful online business in less than two years.

We talked with Matt Price to learn more about the company and their shipping process.

Tell us a little about Tether Tug.

“The idea for the Tether Tug started in the spring of 2013, went through prototype development throughout the summer and fall, and we started taking preorders in November of that year, so we are just over a year old of actually selling our toy. And it has been a really crazy year! In the past three months, our website traffic is almost eight-times what we were used to having, and nearly the same increase in the number of orders we are trying to get out the door. It’s a good problem to have, and we are really thankful for how our customers helped share this toy with their friends and families.”

What was your shipping process like before and after ShipWorks?

“Our shipping process before ShipWorks was a nightmare, and that’s saying it politely! On our past shipping platform, I was lucky if I could get maybe 100 orders out per week, and our business was growing way to fast to accommodate that type of volume, plus it was really hard to switch between carriers. In the past 7 weeks with Shipworks, we’ve shipped over 2,400 individual packages to our customers, including a number of international shipments (which our old system couldn’t do, I had to go directly to the carrier website). Shipworks also saved us money on postage, as it introduced us to Express1 for priority mail shipments and allowed us to easily choose between shipping classes on a single screen, which meant real, tangible dollars saved. This integration saved us close to 35% in shipping costs in our first couple of months.”

What’s your favorite ShipWorks feature?

“There are a lot of features I like, but the one I LOVE the most is ShipSense. Nearly all of our packages are identical in size, but the weight and contents could vary quite a bit depending on the order. The way ShipSense learned our shipping habits and could automatically assign the shipping class and rates to similar packages was a game changer for us!

“I also really like how customizable everything is, and although I don’t have much HTML/XML coding experience, your team has always been able to answer my question or get the right part of code inserted.”

What’s the most challenging thing you ship?

“Well, the Tether Tug is a 5 foot long pole, so that is challenging in itself! It is very close to tripping balloon rates at the USPS, and sometimes does with FedEx, so we have to be very careful in our packaging.”

What’s one piece of advice you would give to a new ecommerce entrepreneur?

“Do your research before just throwing up your website! I always say, ‘hope is not a strategy,’ and it shouldn’t be what you are relying on to get your site what it needs. Every minute you spend on something that isn’t revenue producing is money out of your pocket, so do your research and choose quality partners to help you get where you want to go.”

Learn more about Tether Tug and order from them online at TetherTug.com.